Food Frenzy on the Open Road

Today was another one of those blow-off days, during the majority of which we got nothing of any consequence done. I like those kinds of days. I want more of them.

Well, we started off rather early and drove first to McKinney, where each of us had a breakfast of tacos de huevos con chorizo (sound familiar...like yesterday?), with a side of Mexican rice and refried beans. Unlike yesterday's breakfast, today's was the real deal, made by people who have a stake in the place. Whilte they weren't terribly concerned with the way it looked, they paid attention to the ingredients; it tasted extremely good!


The thing is, this place in McKinney couldn't quite decide what to call itself. Here are the three separate signs that are posted to lure in customers:
























After breakfast, we found ourselves wandering around north Texas and we stumbled onto a large old tree. As the sign says, 1916's parents were pioneer residents.... I would like to change the sign to read: "Set out here in 1916 by Mr. John T. Ballard, whose parents were pioneer residents..."













And then later we had lunch at the Longhorn Ranch Store and Grill, an obnoxious-looking tourist trap on Texas 82 just outside Whitesboro. When we drove up, we assumed it was primarily a restaurant with lots of Texana knick-knacks for sale. In fact, the Texana "stuff" is far more extensive than I would have thought. Lots of metal sculpture, house bling, and vast amounts of knick-knacks. Even a couple of very nice looking (if overly urethaned) mesquite rocking chairs.

The place was not packed, not by a stretch. We were among the few there. But despite the fact that it was nearly empty, we had a nice meal there. We both ordered chicken fried steak, which was one of the better ones I've had in quite awhile. It was not overwhelmed with batter. Instead, it was nearly all meat that had been dredged in flour and then not deep fried but simply pan-fried (at least that's what I think). Tasty stuff.

Of course, it was gawdy. No matter how you do it, you can't present such a vast selection of Texana crap without looking gawdy. After I got home and checked the place out, I found some comments about the owners; the commenter asserts that the owner is abusive to the staff and doesn't know much about customer service. Here is said review.

OK, this is unrelated to today's adventure. It's a photo of the fish tacos my wife had yesterday at Kathleen's Sky Diner in Dallas yesterday; that place is fantastic!